This invention relates generally to radiation detection devices and methods and more specifically to methods and apparatus for correcting pulse pile-up in charge quantizing radiation detection systems.
Radiation detection systems that quantize detected charges are excited by either synchronous or random input depending on the source of radiation. At low interaction rates, the time taken to process and reset from an event can be much shorter than the time between events. At higher interaction rates, the processor can still be responding to the first event when a second event arrives and is to be received. The processor output then depends upon the events in combination and causes inaccuracy in the measurement of the second event and is traditionally referred to as pulse "pile-up". Since the amplitude of the given pulse is random, the resultant error can be large or small. In the past pulse pile-up has been dealt with in various ways which primarily use post collection data correction or simply rejection of piled-up events. Therefore, it will be obvious that there is a need for a method and device for dynamically correcting the processor output levels representing the total charge collected so that the signal continuously reflects the true charge quantity of the detected radiation.